SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The FCC broadband privacy rules have now been repealed by both the Senate and the House, and the repeal is highly likely to be approved by President Trump. This has generated interest (and advertising) for VPN services:
The vote by the U.S. Congress to repeal rules that limit how internet service providers can use customer data has generated renewed interest in an old internet technology: virtual private networks, or VPNs.
[...] "Time to start using a VPN at home," Vijaya Gadde, general counsel of Twitter Inc, said in a tweet on Tuesday that was retweeted by Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey. Gadde was not immediately available for comment. Twitter said she was commenting in her personal capacity and not on behalf of the company.
[...] Some smaller broadband providers are now seizing on privacy as a competitive advantage. Sonic, a California-based broadband provider, offers a free VPN service to its customers so they can connect to its network when they are not home. That ensures that when Sonic users log on to wi-fi at a coffee shop or hotel, for example, their data is not collected by that establishment's broadband provider. "We see VPN as being important for our customers when they're not on our network. They can take it with them on the road," CEO Dane Jasper said.
[...] Private Internet Access, a VPN provider, took a visible stand against the repeal measure when it bought a full-page ad in the New York Times on Sunday. But the company, which boasts about a million subscribers, potentially stands to benefit from the legislation, acknowledged marketing director Caleb Chen.
VPNs have drawbacks. They funnel all user traffic through one point, so they are an attractive target for hackers and spies. The biggest obstacle to their routine use as a privacy safeguard is that they can be too much of a hassle to set up for many customers. They also cost money.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:32PM (1 child)
Ok, what are the steps in starting an ISP?
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday March 30 2017, @09:00PM
Very rough outline, understanding I am not an expert:
1. You need to plan out the physicalities, taking into account the following steps' requirements. Many of the specific actions you take to achieve these objectives will depend on your plan.
2. You need to be sure you actually can (it is not legal everywhere) and if there are any other legalities you need to deal with, such as business registration. You may be required to guarantee some minimum number of clients or something.
3. You need some financial capital. It doesn't necessarily have to be billions; the amount you need depends on the scale you want to operate on and so forth. You might have enough to do it yourself. Wiring up one block is much cheaper than a whole city.
4. You need one or more upstream bandwidth suppliers; most ISPs are "last mile" providers and rent resources from bigger networks like Level 3 that don't sell directly to ordinary users.
5. You may need to provide some degree of hardware to manage hookups; wireless systems, fiber cables, routing/switching hardware, and whatever else gets your upstream providers' bandwidth to the end users as per your business plan. You might be able to rent some of this stuff from other companies. You'll probably have the "heart" of your system at a local data center you rent space at; someplace you can connect to your upstream providers.
6. Depending on how you're getting your services to the end users, you may need permits to install cables or install radio antennas or so forth. For example, if you are a wireless provider, you may need to negotiate with people that own tall buildings or radio towers.
7. Staffwise, at a bare minimum, you'll need maintenance people (perhaps just yourself) and sales/retention people (again perhaps just yourself) and possibly retain the services of accountant and/or lawyer to keep an eye out for trouble (wouldn't suggest also doing this yourself). Staff may require office equipment as well but maybe they can work from home to save on renting an office.
Just my thoughts on the barest of minimums.